Archive for April, 2012

Today I learned how to plant a tree. We helped plant over 120 oak trees in Thousand Oaks as part of Mormon Helping Hands’ Day of Service. When we arrived at the place where we were supposed to plant trees, one of the city’s groundskeepers was there, teaching everyone how to plant the trees so that they’d live and thrive in this rocky soil. Oak trees are native to this area, and are used to growing in rocky, tough dirt, but since these trees have been transplanted instead of grown in the spot they’ll stay forever, we have to take extra care.

The first thing we did was dig a hole that is about two feet deep and two feet wide. That is no easy task in rocky soil. I pulled rocks out with my shovel that were bigger than my fist! Thankfully, the city’s groundskeepers had already drilled the holes with a machine, and back-filled them, so the soil and rocks were already loose, and not too difficult to dig out again.

After we dug the hole, we took the tree out of it’s pot and put it in the hole, filling in around the edges with rich, brown soil. Next comes a very important part, maybe the most important part of all. These trees are going to be on the city’s water drip system, so if there is a drought, we won’t lose all our hard work. Nature can afford to lose a few trees here and there, but these trees don’t have established root systems yet. They need all the water they can get! So, when we were done filling in the hole, we took the extra dirt and made a “C” shape around the base of the tree so the water from the drip system would hit the little wall of earth around the tree and stay with the tree instead of running down the hill.

After we made a ring around our tree for the water system, we pounded in two stabilizing poles, one on each side of the tree. Then we tied the tree to the posts. The posts will ensure that the tree is not toppled over by high Santa Ana winds before the root system has a chance to take root. We don’t want trees that grow sideways. We want tall, beautiful oaks! When the posts were all tied, we hammered nails through the rubber ties into the posts to keep them from slipping.

My little sister, Ava, had the job of hammering nails into the rubber strips. She is very good with hammers and she hit the nail on the head most of the time.

It was really fun to do this activity with my sisters and friends, working together for a common cause. I enjoyed it very much and I can’t wait until we do it again!

My favorite part of Mormon Helping Hands is seeing everyone help each other. Sometimes I hear on the news people fighting, or bad things happening, but on this day, there is no fighting, only helping, and that makes me happy.

I helped two boys take their tree up the hill. When I asked them if they needed help, the younger one said “No.” but the younger one said, “Yes!” so I helped them get it up to the top of the hill. We dug a hole and got the tree into the ground. It was a lot of work, but we were able to do it, just us! By ourselves! That was pretty neat.

Later, I helped tie the trees to stakes so they will be steady in the wind until the roots get hold. We tied each tree between two stakes, and nailed the ties in place, so they wouldn’t slide down and let the tree flounder in the wind. The trees we planted are all up on a hillside, right in the path of the evening ocean winds. Tying the stakes to the trees and nailing them in place was a big job, and there were lots of trees that needed to be tied, so I was pretty busy.

I also helped my dad hand out water bottles. We were able to finish the project within two hours, but we worked hard! I was very thirsty by the time we were done! It was a fun day and I am really happy that I came.

This morning everyone met at the church for Mormon Helping Hands 2012. Even though it was only 7:00 in the morning, lots of people were there to help. Mormon Helping Hands is something we do every year in our area. We get out of our normal routines and go do something for someone else, usually in a big way!

This year we had over 500 volunteers at three locations across the Conejo Valley. I helped in the Thousand Oaks project. We planted 120 trees, and it only took two hours! I was surprised how fast it was. My whole family went, and a lot of my friends too. I worked on digging holes. It was hard work. I am grateful for the service we were able to give today. I look forward to our next Mormon Helping Hands Day of Service!